There are certain things you remember for the rest of your life. Your mother’s smile; your father’s hugs; the feeling of sunshine on your skin. You remember living in your happy home going day in and day out in blissed mediocrity. Studying after school Monday through Friday; meeting up with friends on the weekend. Worrying about things like your next in class presentation or whether or not your crush saw you trip on your way to class. All the stupid things you can’t wait to get over after you “grow up” and figure it all out. That’s what happens when you get out of high school, right? You figure it all out and your life magically falls into place.

    In your case, it fell apart, though you were not alone.

    Shortly after graduation, you enrolled into a college. It was nothing special, but it was your next step to becoming your own person and striking out on your own, even if only a bit. You had decided to live on campus to gain some independence, even if you were only a half hour away from your parents, you were still on your own kinda… right? Getting yourself sorted and learning how to use the laundromat was your first obstacle but by the end of the first semester you knew exactly which washers worked and which made your clothes smell like celery. And you almost never got lost… anymore… usually… it was a big campus.

    It was an unassuming Tuesday after class that you were studying at a cafe in the student union. Typically you would return to your dorm room after class but you were in need of some caffeine and your sweet tooth couldn’t resist. Being that it was only around 1:30, the hall that was usually crowded with ping-pong players and sports game watchers was empty, the wide flat screen t.v. hooked on the wall was playing news at a barely audible volume. You settled on the small couch in front of it opening your laptop to start procrastinating your homework. It was about 10 minutes into watching pointless youtube videos that you heard something that caught your attention.

    Breaking News: And here we are at Charity’s Hospital, where a family of four were admitted earlier this morning showing signs of fever and delirium. We were recently informed that one of the children attacked and bit a staff member unprovoked. So far he has shown no signs of being infected by the bite. But the family only seems to be becoming more rabid as staff try to transport them to a safer more fortified facility to monitor their health condition. We were lucky enough to catch the doctor who was attacked only a half hour ago and ask a few questions…

    Thinking back to it now, that would be the way the media unknowingly revealed the first case of the disease. A glamorized version of a fatal condition. From then on, more and more people with symptoms of fever and disorientation appeared and most of them fell into the same aggressive, unreasonable savageness-- they always bit.  A mother at the zoo: launched herself at her best friend effectively ripping the skin from the other woman’s jaw before being tackled by security and tazed-- a coincidence-- the media said. A father at home waiting on dinner bit the pizza delivery man hard enough to puncture muscle on the teenager’s forearm before the kid ran away-- an odd occurrence possibly related to some disease-- the media touted. A young boy at school: bit off the ear of a classmate during storytime. Trust the endangerment of small children to really get the media going. A national crisis they claimed. Well, they were almost right.

    No one ever was able to figure out what happened to the biters after the incident. They were always somehow detained with no public record or eye witness accounting. The victims were usually gone within the next few days of whatever interviews a few news stations could get a hold of. With the nation’s public asking for answers and the common people doing their own research, it was soon brought to everyone’s attention that this was not a national crisis but a worldwide pandemic. People all over the world reported having seen others acting disoriented, some even said hungry one moment and rabid the next. Different nations were handling the “disease” differently. Some countries tried to treat them as patients in designated wards of hospitals, some countries kept all the infected at a camp for supposed treatment where those who were to look after them wore hazmat suits and the patients remained chained up similarly the animals they acted like; some countries, executed on sight. You can only imagine the outrage the government and hospitals faced from advocates of the sick.

    “Where do they think they get off treating actual human beings like that?” ranted your roommate and friend, Leena. “They couldn’t get away with that if they treated animals the same! It’s wrong, they’re people and they have feelings. This is an infringement on their right to no cruel and unusual punishment! And they didn’t even do anything wrong! They’re sick!”

    You knew Leena had strong feelings on the subject, and you could see where she was coming from. Some of the tried treatments and accommodations for the diseased weren’t exactly human health and happiness friendly. But at the same time, as far as you knew, the patients were savage and couldn’t be reasoned with. Letting them roam free would at best get other people injured-- at worst? Spread the disease. It was well intentioned people like your roommate that was causing trouble with protests about letting those with the disease out or trying to get more personalized treatment to each patient. So far none of the protests had gotten violent but you could only suppose when that would happen, and it would.

    You had convinced your parents that you were sure you were just fine staying on campus amidst all the protesting chaos, and that you wouldn’t get in the middle of it. Besides a few protests a week and the new wariness around those with symptoms of something as simple as the common cold, and going without breakfast life on campus remained relatively normal. You were walking away from your last class of the day with your close classmate Joshua. A sweet, soft spoken boy with a mischievous side and a knack for somehow always taking better lecture notes than you.

    He was rather good looking, but not your type, you couldn’t say he wasn’t nice to look at though. You didn’t blame his fangirls for falling for him. Your favorite part about him had been his smile. You couldn’t see it now. He always wore a face mask. The paranoia from the rabid sickness had struck deeply with your classmate. Along with the small mouth and nose cover, he always had a bottle of hand sanitizer on him and rarely touched anyone or anything he wasn’t sure was clean. It made you sad to see the changes the disease had caused to your friend without him even being directly affected. The only sign you got of his smile nowadays were tilting of his crescent shaped eyes creating a half moon eye smile.

    You and Joshua managed to have a few classes together and coincidentally lived in the same living hall, so walking together wasn’t uncommon. After getting off the elevator for your floor, you and Joshua were nearly knocked down.

    “Oh! Y/N! I’m so glad you’re here. I’m on my way to the protest in front of the hospital on Main and Calico, do you wanna go?” your roommate was practically vibrating with excitement, unfortunately you didn’t share the enthusiasm.

    “Isn’t that the one with the biggest biters ward in the state?” Joshua uncharacteristically cut into the conversation, “ You really probably shouldn’t go, it could be dangerous if the protest gets out of hand.” he softly disputed looking at her sincerely.

    Leena rolled her eyes at his use of slang. “Biters" being a derogatory term to the patients.

    “That’s why I have to go” she brushed him off not unkindly “It’s the biggest violation of human rights in the state. We have to help these people.” she argued before checking the time on her cellphone. “Y/N, we have to go now if we wanna get there in time for the protest, are you coming?” she asked hopefully.

    She didn’t want to go alone, but she would go with or without you. You hesitated. You didn’t want to go; you didn’t want her to go. But you knew she would and what if she needed someone to help her stay out of trouble when the police came to break it up? Joshua grabbed your hand in slight anxiety trying to anchor you there, safe at school. Your roommate didn’t seem to notice as she shifted her weight from one foot to another waiting for your answer.

    “Not today” you to